Social Pressures

Social Pressures was something that Lloyd over at Treehugger took issue with because, as he pointed out, much of the rest of the world lives in small houses. I guess I need to clarify that these pressures I speak about are not on a macro level, but a more micro, person to person, local interaction pressure. This fact certainly wasn’t lost on me and ironically I had a moment of pause when it came to this article because I know living smaller is pretty status quo for most people. But ultimately I decided not to go into all that for a few reasons: 94% of my readers are from the United States, an individual will typically get direct social pressure from their friends, family, and those around them, not from someone in another country, finally we are talking about Tiny Houses, not small houses; Building a small house typically can be done within the current legal confinements and are more widely accepted as just being practical, frugal, or a product of density. Ultimately in the US, Tiny Houses are an extreme and only serve to spark a conversation about how much house and possessions do you really need.

As for dealing with these pressures I think it is very important first have a firm understanding of yourself, from there understanding the issues and engaging in respectful dialogue with opposing view points. In the end you cannot convince everyone, but knowing yourself, the motivations, the convictions and gaining the support of those close to you can help you manage this. Most often this is a pretty moot point because those you socialize with are of the like mindset, the rest are often fascinated by how cool your Tiny House is. Just keep in mind that it isn’t for everyone.

Fear

The final point kind of extends the points from the previous heading, but understanding that to build a Tiny House you must pay a good chunk of change to do it is stressful in some ways. I guess for me, spending $30,000 in one shot is very stressful and evokes doubts no matter what. When purchasing my first new car, I remember just before signing the line I had a brief moment of fear hit me, what if I crash the car, what if it’s a lemon, what if, what if what if. Simply put, for me, spending that sum of money is scary no matter how sure I am, because you are taking the leap.

Things that help with this is to be intentional about what you do, do your homework, think it through, look at ways to mitigate risk. I always try to put it in perspective, that if I were to live in my Tiny House for 2-3 years, I could walk away after that because I would have broke even when compared to paying rent.

What Are your Other Solutions? Let us know in the comments!

About two weeks ago I wrote a post on the five barriers to living in a Tiny House and it sparked a lot of great discussion and got some coverage around the blog-o-sphere, but I promised to do a follow up post on what might be some possible solutions to those barriers. So today I wanted to do just that. This got really lengthy so I have split it in two parts, the next one will go up later this week.

Land

Land is expensive no matter how you slice it, but there are a few things you can consider when looking for land. If you are willing to live in very rural areas, you can pick up land at a better price, but you trade being close to things and having more employment opportunities. Since many Tiny Houses are off the grid, you might consider purchasing land that has failed to pass the “perk test” which is way cheaper, but consider the implications down the road.

Many people have found success in parking their Tiny House behind other people’s houses or on a corner of their property in exchange for money or barter of services. I have seen this particularly resonate with retirees as keeping up a lawn or things that need to be fixed around the house becomes too daunting psychically. In this case you simply work out an agreement and officially you state that you sleep inside their house, you just happen to park a trailer in the back yard. Most zoning (but not home owners associations) usually allow for a trailer to be parked out of view of the road as long as it has a market value over a few hundred bucks.

Next option is cooperative purchasing, co-housing, or intentional community models. These are a huge topic in and of themselves, but in short, you find a group of like minded individuals that pool their money to purchase some land.

Mobile Home parks, RV parks and campgrounds are the next option, the two big caveats on this is that some places require that an RV or mobile home must be legally designated as such in order to be allowed into the park. This can good and bad in some ways; you can operate in a box that municipalities know and understand, but also you might be limited by that box. With Campgrounds you will have to be sure that they don’t have a limit on stays, many do.

Loans

Loans are a tricky one; banks inherently want to manage risk, which means they don’t want to step outside the box. Some people have had luck with securing personal loans, but this option has had limited mileage. The kicker is if you build a Tumbleweed style house yourself then you are often looking at what is normally 2-3 years worth of rent.

The solution I advocate for is to be self funded, aka save up and pay with cash. This is not what many people want to hear, but philosophically I feel that it is very much in line with the Tiny House movement. We have recognized that how our society currently conducts itself isn’t always the best approach. Part of the philosophy of living in Tiny Houses is to reduce the things you have to remove the clutter and stress from your life. Entering into a Tiny House without debt is essentially removing stress from your life so you can enjoy it more and focus on what is important. A Tiny House is not inherently the solution, it is the process and change in living that brings it.

Realizing that no matter how much I try to convince others that saving up is the solution, many will not heed my advice, there are other ways to get there. Some people found a low APR credit card (all things relative) and used that to pay for the house, then treated the monthly credit card bills as their mortgage payment.

Some have been able to have family or friends loan them money and they work out a payment schedule. Some even pay interest to them. The downside to this is that it can put a strain on relationships and change the dynamic, so proceed with caution.

Laws

When it comes to laws you need to make a decision, are you going to abide by them or not and understand that there are very real consequences to both sides. It is a tricky problem.

For those who want to be above board on everything, the best advice I can give you is hire a contractor/developer who is sympathetic to your cause. What you are buying is their expertise and knowledge on how to navigate the codes and permitting process. They know how to get variances, they speak code enforcement’s language and might even have relationships they can use. When approach them, make sure that your homework is well done, you should have sample drawings, plans, photos, and copies of sample codes that other municipalities have used to deal with Tiny Houses.

For those who wish to do it under the radar, understand you are technically breaking the law, it could have criminal consequences. I personally haven’t heard of people getting in trouble, but there is a potential and legally they have the right to pursue criminal charges.

When it comes to skirting the law, there are some things you can do to mitigate the risks. First off, be a good neighbor, this will go a long ways. This is because most municipalities are complaint driven, meaning only when code enforcement gets a complaint, do they investigate. The other thing to add to this is, don’t be obvious. Have your house be out of sight of the public and keep a low profile.

Next powerful tool to have in the tool box is know the laws, codes and speak the language. I can’t stress this enough, it take a lot of time and it is a frustrating process, but being legal savvy is very helpful. For example, if you state your primary dwelling is, in fact, the normal sized house you park your Tiny House behind, this means that you do not live in the Tiny House and it is simply a trailer. By knowing the system we can exploit it’s weaknesses in a legal manner, much as a shady lawyer would do to get his client off on a technicality. Basically you want to legally show you live somewhere else, that no one lives in the trailered Tiny House, and that it is a trailer that is compliance with zoning.

The last way to mitigate risks legally is know that many municipalities now use satellite and or aerial photos to do tax assessments. Essentially they take photos at different times and compare to look for changes in your land. If they find something has changed, they will often send someone out to check it out. Usually this is a tax assessor or they just send a letter, but you can usually settle their fears when they see that it is on wheels and you can say that you are storing it here for a week, month, etc. in accordance with zoning laws; at that point pull out a copy of the code and they will generally leave you alone. Again, knowing the legal speak can get you out of this.